Written by MichaelFebruary 25, 2021March 1, 2021

Episode 1066

Previously…
– Jason invited Sabrina to have dinner with him and Sophie. He hoped that his daughter and his new love interest would get along.
– Spencer insisted to Elly that his sexual relationship with Natalie meant nothing and even kissed her, but Elly wound up slapping him and storming off.
– During a heated argument, Tempest impulsively kissed Samantha… unaware that Jaq was about to arrive and see them.

Jaq Pearson‘s tennis shoes touch down against the paved path that leads from the parking lot to Rosie Jimenez‘s apartment — but their soft, upbeat steps stop cold, in mid-movement, when they see something unexpected up ahead. Jaq stares in confusion at the sight of their girlfriend kissing Tempest Banks; they linger long enough to realize that Samantha is not pushing Tempest away. Then, with their heart thudding and brain spinning, Jaq ducks behind a row of hedges and sneaks, crouched, back toward the parking lot.

As soon as they are back there, they begin wondering: Should I have interrupted? Do I tell Samantha what I saw? But, like a pair of legs attempting to gain some traction in quicksand, nothing holds. Jaq feels themself sinking deeper and deeper into the morass of confusion and doubt. They climb back into their car and simply sit in the absolute stillness, still processing what they witnessed.

—–

The kiss comes out of nowhere for Samantha. One minute, she and Tempest are in the midst of a heated conversation, and the next, Tempest is upon her, the familiar hands on her waist, those lips on hers, and she feels herself lost in a moment that is outside of time, outside of reality.

However long later — seconds, minutes, an indefinable instant — Samantha wills herself to pull away, drawing back just far enough to put a decisive end to the kiss.

“I– we– can’t,” she stammers.

Tempest looks right at her, and although there is a flash of something apologetic, remorseful, it quickly fades, giving way to a more characteristic sort of defiance.

“That’s why I can’t be friends,” she says. “And I know you felt it, too.”

Samantha swallows hard. “I’m with Jaq now.”

“You already said that. And you also said we’d still be together if I hadn’t fucked up.”

Her stare remains fixed on Samantha, burning like a dare.

“I should get inside,” Samantha says. It feels like every part of her body turns at a slightly different time, and she is nothing more than a pile of disconnected limbs clumsily attempting to flee.

“Fine. Go. But some points were made here,” Tempest says. With that, she turns and heads for the parking lot.

Samantha staggers to Rosie’s front door, feeling as though she has been shot, for as weak and uncoordinated as her body now is. She pauses outside the apartment, able to hear the chatter from within, and then touches her index and middle fingers to her lips.

She knows that she has to forget that kiss.

—–

Mere moments later, through their windshield, Jaq sees Tempest emerge from the same walking path into the parking lot. They duck down to be sure they aren’t seen, and soon enough, Tempest is gone.

But the memory of what Jaq witnessed is not.

“What am I supposed to do now?” they mutter as they squirm back up to a fully seated position, one hand resting on the key in the ignition and the other on the door handle.

—–

The serving dish settles on the table with a wobbly chattering sound, followed by a decisive clink. To Jason Fisher, who sits at one end of the long dining room table, the noise seems very much like a representation of his own nerves this evening: unsteady and jarring.

“This all looks so good,” Sabrina Gage, on his left, says. He can hear how hard she is trying to keep things light and pleasant, and he is so grateful to her for it.

“Dad didn’t cook it,” Sophie Fisher comments coolly from Jason’s other side. She looks straight over the table at Sabrina, her gaze almost a taunt. “Just so you know.”

“I decided takeout would be easier,” he fills in. “The point of tonight is to spend time together, not get food poisoning because I got in over my head in the kitchen.”

“It still looks really good,” Sabrina assures him with a warm smile. “I don’t think I’ve ever had Cornish game hen before.”

“It’s just like chicken. A little more tender.” Jason indicates the bowl of mashed potatoes. “Sophie, would you please hand me the potatoes?”

The teenager, outfitted with black eyeshadow, lipstick, and clothing, hesitates for a moment, then picks up the bowl and sets it in front of her father.

“They kill them when they’re younger,” she says.

“What?” Sabrina asks.

“The game hens. They’re like chickens, but they slaughter them when they’re younger. That’s why they’re so small.”

“Sophie,” Jason exhales. “Please.”

She shrugs. “I read it on Wikipedia.”

“Okay,” he says with defeat, having learned all too well which battles are not worth picking these days. He serves himself some potatoes and then passes the plate to Sabrina. “Here you go.”

“Thank you,” she says sweetly. “Sophie, are you in any clubs at school? Do you play any sports?”

“Can’t you tell I’m on the cheer squad?”

“You are?” Sabrina asks, doing her best to mask her surprise.

“She’s not,” Jason says. “We’re looking at having her join the Science Club in the fall, though. She went to a STEM camp this past summer–“

“But I got kicked out,” Sophie says.

“Oh.” Sabrina shifts in her chair, straightening out the napkin on her lap. “You must really like science, though.”

“Yeah. Maybe I’ll be a coroner one day.”

“Sophie!” Jason exclaims, unable to keep his annoyance under wraps. “Can we just have a normal conversation? Sabrina wants to get to know you.”

“What’s wrong with talking about my career goals?” Sophie says. “It’s not like she’s never heard about gore before.”

Jason’s eyes flash with the first spark of a fire that’s about to start blazing, but Sabrina places her hand atop his.

“I’m fine,” she tells him quietly.

Sophie’s eyes rest on the hand-to-hand contact between her father and Sabrina.

“Dad, come on,” Sophie says. “She must know all about what happened to Mom.”

Jason can no longer control the volume or ferocity of his voice. “Enough!”

“She used your name. You knew that, right?” Sophie continues, sneering across the table at Sabrina. “She stuffed the wedding cake topper in my mom’s mouth. How gruesome is that?”

Jason slams both hands down on top of the table.

“That’s it,” he says, pushing out his chair and standing. “Go to your room.”

“It’s okay,” Sabrina says, but her meek attempt at defusing things doesn’t even make it into the fray.

“Now I’m not even allowed to talk about Mom?” Sophie says accusingly. “Because you got a new girlfriend?”

“Your room. Now,” he commands, his arm and index finger jutting out to point toward the stairs. “Now.”

The teen stares him down for several more seconds and then bolts from the dining room. Her boots rumble up the stairs, their pounding rhythm finally punctuated by the loud slam of her bedroom door. Its echo fades off into stark silence, enveloping the entire house in painful awkwardness.

Jason simply turns back toward Sabrina and says, “I’m sorry.”

—–

“There you are,” Spencer Ragan declares as he arrives in the doorway of his son’s bedroom. His wife stands over the small bed, folding a pile of Peter’s laundry.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Natalie asks as she looks up, a half-folded t-shirt in her hands.

“Loretta took Peter to the park,” he says, “so we finally have a few minutes to talk.”

“Talk about what?”

“Us.”

Natalie lets out a loud groan. “This again? Spencer, I told you–“

“Not that.” He folds his arms, causing the fabric of his blue Oxford shirt to stretch tautly across his defined chest. “What’s up with you telling Elly about our… relationship?”

“Excuse me?”

“I found out that Elly came to the house one night and you made her very aware that you and I were… you know. I thought we were keeping that to ourselves.”

She regards him with an annoyed glare and then turns her back to him to place some of Peter’s shirts in a dresser drawer.

“Natalie,” he says sternly.

“What?” She whips around. “I opened the door to my own house. I didn’t know it would be Elly there. What do you think, I set it all up?”

“That’s not what I said. But it doesn’t sound like you did anything to hide what we were–“

“You’re the one who was yelling out for me to come back to bed! Why was it my job to lie to her about what was going on?”

Frustrated, he pauses, trying to find just the right angle to make his point. But Natalie beats him to the punch.

“What’s this really about, anyway?” Natalie asks. “You’re mad at me for not lying to Elly that you were fucking your own wife?”

She closes the drawer and takes a few steps toward him, closing the gap between them.

“I’m sorry your girlfriend got the– well, the right idea,” she says.

“She is not my girlfriend,” Spencer replies, but the memory of the kiss that he and Elly shared burns hot and bright inside his mind.

“Poor baby. Getting shot down left and right, aren’t you?”

She raises a finger to his lips and traces it slowly over them. He swats her hand away.

“I get what this is,” she says, and her fingers lift again, this time undoing the top button on his shirt.

Spencer stiffens, uncertain as he watches what she is doing.

“You’re desperate to blow off some steam, aren’t you?” Natalie asks as she unfastens the next button to expose his hairy chest.

—–

Samantha does what she can to compose herself — closing her eyes, drawing in ten deep breaths and slowly releasing them — before she knocks on the door and is admitted to Rosie’s apartment. She tries to lose herself in greeting her brother, Rosie, Tori, and Landon, and by the time she is stooped over the blanket where Gabrielle is lying and gurgling, she has almost entirely managed to push her kiss with Tempest to the back of her mind.

“Is Jaq coming?” Travis asks as he joins his sister on the floor beside the baby.

“They were supposed to come here after work.” Samantha pulls her iPhone from her pocket and checks the time. “I’m not sure where they are, though.”

Just as she places the phone on the carpet next to her and turns her attention back to Gabrielle, however, a sudden buzzing indicates the arrival of a new text message.

“That’s weird,” Samantha says as she picks up the phone again.

“What?” Travis asks.

“It’s Jaq.” She reads over the message again before explaining, “They got stuck at work and say to tell you they’re sorry to miss out today.”

“We’ve all been there,” he says. “Tell them we’ll all get dinner soon.”

“That’ll be nice,” Samantha says, turning her attention back to the phone as she types a response… and only now does it occur to her how close she and Tempest might have come to being caught by Jaq.

—–

Jaq closes the front door of the Brooks family home and beelines for the stairs.

“Jaq, is that you?” Finn Campbell calls out from the depths of the house.

They pause at the foot of the stairs as Finn emerges from the kitchen.

“Home already?” he asks with surprise.

“It’s a long story,” Jaq tells their roommate with an exaggerated sigh of weariness. “Something came up at work, so I couldn’t go to Samantha’s brother’s thing.”

Finn furrows his brow. “But you’re not at work.”

“I left a paper in my room, so I have to– like I said, it’s a long story.”

“Have you eaten?” Finn asks. “I’m making a frozen pizza. I’m no culinary genius, but…”

“I’m good. But thanks. I’ll grab something later.”

“Sounds good.”

Jaq sprints up the stairs, and Finn watches them go before shrugging his shoulders and returning to the kitchen.

—–

“I’m sorry,” Jason says glumly as he turns back toward Sabrina.

“It’s okay. Really.”

“She’s just…” He places both hands on the back of his dining chair.

“A teenager. I understand.” Sabrina tilts her head sympathetically. “I remember what it was like. And I hadn’t lost my mother as a little girl. It all makes sense.”

“I hate that she knows all these things about how Courtney died. I hate that it’s all on the internet. You don’t even think…” But he trails off, lost in the complicated web of thoughts.

“I’m sorry, Jason. I can barely imagine.”

Sabrina pushes out her own chair and stands. She smooths out her burgundy dress nervously.

“I should probably go,” she says after a loaded pause.

“What? No. Stay and have dinner.”

She looks at the food, and as delicious as it looks, it holds no appeal right now.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to be here,” she says. “I should give Sophie some space. And you, too.”

“Do you want to take some with you?” he asks with a desperation that they both know has very little to do with the actual food.

“I’ll have something at home. Pack this up so you and Sophie can eat later.” She looks him right in the eyes. “I promise, it’s okay. Take tonight to cool things down with your daughter, though.”

All Jason can do in response is nod.

“Thank you for going to all this trouble,” Sabrina says. “I’ll let myself out.”

As much as Jason wants to protest, to insist that she should stay, he knows it is neither the right nor the comfortable thing to do at the moment. He manages a weak goodbye and listens as Sabrina exits the house. His attention lingers on the spread on the table. Only an hour ago, it represented the hope of a fresh start for all of them, and now it simply looks like a sad relic of his failures.

END OF EPISODE 1066

How should Jason handle Sophie now?
What will happen between Spencer and Natalie?
Should Jaq come clean about what they saw?
Discuss it all in the comments section below!

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